Dear Xose, I hope you like it. Originally it was going to be a large size book with photos virtually on every page. I wrote 135,000 words. Then the recession hit and publishers were affected, so I was asked to cut out 45,000 words and it became a paperback. However, I have started work on Volume Two. Could you put an image of the cover on the site as I don't know how to do that?BestBill.

Raymond Jones actuially existed. He was one of several people who went into Nems to ask about the Beatles record which had dominated the entire front page of issue No. 2 of Mersey Beat in July 1961. Paul McCartney had brought me a copy of the single from Germany and he also gave a copy to Bob Wooler, who played it locally. Brian Epstein, my record reviewer in Mersey Beat from issue No. 3 used to drop into the Mersey Beat office with his adverts, which went on the same pages as Beatles features, he'd come into the office with a present for Virginia after a visit to Amsterdam and took me to lunch at the Basnett Bar in Basnett Street on two occasions to discuss what was happening on the local scene. Every time I visited Nems to drop in the latest issue, he'd invite me into his office to discuss it. Therefore, i was suprised when, in his autobiography, he made out that he'd only heard of the Beatles when a lad came into his shop to order the single later that year. I'd been discussing them with him for months and he was aware of them, not only from Mersey Beat but for the fact that they dropped into Nems regularly in the afternoons after their lunchtime sessions at the Cavern and he asked the girls on his staff about them. This can also be confirmed by Pete Best.Bob Barroch is another person who asked for the record at Nems. He said he asked for it before Jones because Paul McCartney told him about it at the Cavern.Alistair Taylor did claim that he was Raymond Jones, but this is not so. Raymond Jones now lives in Spain. But his only relevance to the Beatles story would be if Brian had never heard of the group before his enquiry. This is not so. I was the first person ever to discuss the local scene with Brian and that was in July 1961 - and it can all be proven in black and white in the pages of Mersey Beat.Why Brian decided to put the story in his book is probably because it sounds a lot better that saying he discovered them via Mersey Beat. I was also the one who arranged his visit to the Cavern. He phoned me up and asked if I could smooth the way. He didn't want to have to stand in a queue with youngsters and pay at the door. So I phoned Ray McFall and arranged it for Brian.

Nice to find this included in Eric Krasker's book, plus a footnote with DM Beatles Forum as a source.

Virtually none of my books is currently available. I'm afraid they never got the distribution that other similar books get. My book with Pete Best, 'The Best Years Of The Beatles', gives a completely different insight into Pete's life than the previous book 'Beatle!' and is quite lavishly illustrated, but it was only published in Britain and soon went out of print. I believe copies are still available from Pete Best's own site and I asked Roag to request all the original film of the book from the publisher. I spent about 20 years compiling my encyclopedias, but apart from 'The Beatles Encyclopedia', which was originally published in America by Hyperion, the rest had little distribution in the States. They include the revised edition of the Encyclopedia and the encyclopedias on George, John, Paul and Ringo.The books on George, Paul and Ringo are still available at www.merseybeat.co.uk at less than half their original price - and signed!I've had bad luck with my books - lots of times the corrections I made were never done. In a book with 500,000 words and hundreds of dates, occasionally a printer would put 1968 when it would be 1962 and so on - and although I'd correct the proofs, often they wouldn't be corrected. With the original encyclopedia all the reviews of Beatles publications weren't used, all my colour photos of the Beatles were lost with the publisher, with the revised edition the publisher lost 40,000 words - and so on. With my original Mersey Beat book in 1977 I didn't get my set of original copies of Mersey Beat back, so I went to the publishers office and found them spread across some shelves in the basement - with half of the issues missing!For an insight into author's publishing problems, I now give authors a forum to write about their books themselves in the 'Rock Books' section of www.merseybeat.co.uk

Bill,

I own all four copies of your individual Beatles Solo, John, Paul, George and Ringo Encyclopedia's. I love them. They are essential, I recommend everyone in here to find copies because I reference them daily. One of the things I mentioned to another DM forum member was that I was "surprised" to see that George and Ringo's volumes weren't as comprehensive as John and Paul. I know, I know it's Lennon and McCartney but there's a lot about Ringo and George that I would love to discover. Any chance, all four Encyclopedia volumes will be released with new info, any time in the near future?

This was at the request of the publishers. I could easily have made all four volumes of equal length, but publishers generallyhave their way. For instance, with 'Liverpool Bigger Than The Beatles' I was asked to produce 135,000 words, which I did. The book was supposed to be a large book with photos on every page. Due to the recession the publishers told me to cut the book to 95,000 words and it became a paperback with just a handful of pictures. People often complain to me that the Beatles Encyclopedia has no index - but the publishers didn't want want one and cut 40,000 words out of the book anyway - and lost all my colour transparencies of the Beatles. The publishers of my original Mersey Beat book borrowed all my copies. When I asked for them back they said they were in the storeroom. When I went there, half the copies were missing, including Issue no. 13, and I've never been able to collate a full set ever since.

Dear Bill! May I turn to you with a question? Please, what is the correct spelling of the early name of the band, I mean was it the Quarrymen or the Quarry Men? Was it spelt in one or two words? Different writers and the participants of the band itself express different ideas concerning the problem. Many fans are at a loss and need your help... ))) Thank you very much!

If you notice the early photo of the Quarry Men performing on the back of a lorry, you will notice that the drums have only two words 'Qyarry Men.' the visiting card that Nigel had was 'Quarry Men'. All early references to them had the name as two words. Later on, the words were truncated by writers years after the group had disbanded. it's the same with the group the Merseybeats. When they originally asked my permission to use the name, they went out as 'The Mersey Beats.' Over the years there have been numerous minor changes in details such as these.

"Someone told me a few minutes ago they saw John walking on the street once wearing a button saying "I Love Paul." And this girl said she asked him, "Why are you wearing a button that says ' I Love Paul'? He said "Because I love Paul."